Search Engine Forums Spotlight

What’s going on in the search industry? Find out here, with these links to some of the latest topics being discussed in our own Search Engine Watch Forums, and other search marketing forums across the Web:

How Expanded is Yahoo Advanced Match? Search Engine Watch Forums “We have been noticing large increases in impressions (and clicks from that) but a major decrease in conversion percentages. I had thought Yahoo was now using expanded match similar to Google – did a search and found little info on whether this was the case.”

ECommerce SEO Cre8asite Forums “Is there a certain way to optimize an ECommerce site? Considering content is huge, and ECommerce sites don’t generally have a lot of content, what else can I do?”

Your 10 Rules to Follow to Ensure Usability Cre8asite Forums “I was wondering members views on what their 10 definite rules would be to ensure, or at least strive for, good usability. I’m not talking about Nielsens heuristics etc, I mean 10 (current and relevant) easy to follow, actionable points that the general developer could follow.”

Matt Cutts Giving Out Clues High Rankings Forum “Matt’s posted a thread on his blog where he’s asking us to vote for features we most want for Google Webmaster Tools. One of the proposed features would tell the webmaster which pages on their site don’t validate. Why would Google have that information? Are they validating pages just for the fun of it?”

Does Personalized Search Threaten Local Search? Webmaster World “The nature of Local Search means both the business type and location have to be correct for an advert to be relevant, personalization seems to put this relevance under threat.”

Wrapping Text in Description Lines 1 & 2 Search Engine Watch Forums “What have your experiences been with click-thru rates and wrapping one statement from Description Line #1 into Description Line #2? Or do you try to maintain two separate statements in the two distinct Descriptions?”

My Own AdWords Team Webmaster World “A rep at Google has let me know that I now have my own AdWords team of experts to help me out. I am happy running things on my own but wonder if there is anything I should ask about or look out for.”

Wordtracker vs. Myself High Rankings Forum “I’d like to know if there are ways to conduct keyword research myself — without using Wordtracker. I sometimes wonder if companies like Wordtracker are compiling their keyword results from queries by publishers like me who use their service?”

Biggest Changes in the Last Year or 18 Months Cre8asite Forums “What do you think have been the biggest changes in SEO over the last year? Just scratching the surface, it does seem that the search engines are harder to game, and content really is the all-important factor.”

Search Engine Watch About to Become a Butterfly Search Engine Watch Forums “Search Engine Watch has always been the number one resource for Search Engine Marketing information, although perhaps seen as the ugly duckling in the industry. Well, it’s about to receive a facelift.”

Search Headlines

We report the top search marketing news daily at the Search Engine Watch Blog. You’ll find more news from around the Web below.

Google launches a new version of its Chrome web browser today (February 15), which will include an in-built ad blocker to try and eradicate intrusive ads from the browsing experience. There are some clear standards and some unanswered questions relating to this new approach, so what exactly do marketers need to know?

Over the past decade, SEO has been growing into its position as a critical marketing channel for businesses. If you're new to this environment, or have new team members that need to be trained up, we've outlined some of the best (and importantly, free) SEO training courses and websites to take your knowledge to the next level.

We have entered a new era of search where SEO and content marketing have converged. AI technologies are providing a whole new world of insights so marketers can make impactful – data-informed – decisions. The AI revolution is here and now, and early adopters in SEO and content marketing are already one step ahead of the competition.

On December 1st, 2017, Barry Schwartz reported on Search Engine Land that Google had officially confirmed a change to how it displays text snippets in Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). What does this mean for SEO, and how should webmasters and SEOs adapt?